Alain Aspect wrote this book to share his fascination with the debate between two giants of physics, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, over the interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Almost half a century after his own experiments, Aspect was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating that it was necessary to abandon Einstein's vision of the quantum world.

Aspect places this debate within the incredible history of quantum physics. Never hiding his admiration for Einstein, he shows us how the thinker's quasi-philosophical controversy with Bohr led to very real experiments, and to the invention of new quantum technologies.

Recounting his career, Aspect explains with passion and clarity how he demonstrated one of the most extraordinary properties of quantum entanglement, and tries to imagine Einstein's reaction to his experimental results.

A major book.

Since the end of World War II, nothing of importance seemed to escape Pierre Boulez: a seminal modern composer, a revered conductor, and an admired and feared intellectual, he was also the founder of several prestigious musical institutions.

An extraordinary personality, open to the world, Boulez questioned all fields of thought and maintained privileged relationships with the greatest writers, painters, directors, architects, philosophers, and scientists of his time.

In this book, his fellow traveler Laurent Bayle analyzes why the vision and struggles of one of the twentieth century's greatest geniuses continue to shape our present and nourish the future of creation.

No experience can be more terrifying than torture. It is a disturbing subject, shrouded in heavy silence. Both victims of torture and torturers often refuse to talk about their experiences. In many countries, the study of torture itself and of its consequences is not without risk. Françoise Sironi has had an extended experience in treating torture victims. Her book is the result of a thorough study of many cases. In order to help victims overcome the psychological after-effects of torture, she believes that it is essential to understand the mechanI'ms of torture: How is it possible to influence someone to the point of forcing them to confess, reveal information and betray others? Physical violence alone does not suffice. The mechanI'ms of torture can only be understood by an examination of how torturers are created What is it that makes some people capable of torturing others and of inflicting such pain and cruelty? In order to effectively combat the existence of torture, more than a simple denunciation of violence and brutality is required. Survivors must be helped in their struggle to lead a normal life. And as Sironiedemonstrates, this means entering the mental universe of the perpetuators of torture. Understanding the psychology of torture ? of both victims and their torturers ? means understanding how one human being can affect another's mied.Françoise Sironi is a lecturer in clinical psychology and psychopathology at the University of Paris-VIII. She was recently named director of the Georges Devereux Centre for Ethnopsychiatry at the University of Paris-VIII. She was formerly a psychologist and psychotherapist at the Hôpital de Ville Evrard and has worked with an association for exiled victims of repression. She is the co-founder of the Centre Primo Levi, which specialises in the treatment of victims of torture and collective violence.

Today, we can measure and share time with incredible precision. But do we know it in all its facets? Do we realize that the seemingly perfect recent solutions that underpin our ultra-miniaturized world lead to often strategic but largely unknown new challenges? In this book, Gérard Berry presents a totally novel vision of time. In particular, he shows how essential the control of time is in our society, while also illustrating its dangers, especially in fields as varied as industry, telecommunications, music, and even computing--a subject never before discussed. Berry brings to this fascinating story more than his expertise: he also adds humor and a love of words. He tackles the flowery expressions of ordinary speech involving time with virtuoso drollery; he shows the beauty and frequent strangeness of the stages in the history of time. What's more, in the style of a fanciful sci-fi novel, he imagines new technologies that will enable us to skillfully manipulate time--a dream as old as mankind.

The order in which food is served at mealtimes has changed considerably over the centuries, and has always varied from one country to another 'even among nations that are geographically and culturally close. In the sixteenth-century Spanish Court, for example, food was not served in the same order to everyone, and this discrepancy served to signify differences in social hierarchy.L'Ordre de Mets is a chronological study covering several centuries, as well as a comparative history of food-order etiquette. Jean-Louis Flandrin begins by describing the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the order in which food was served was both strict and complex in France. He then goes on to study food order before and after this period, from the last two centuries of the Miedle Ages, up to the present day. Finally, he seeks to fied the reasons governing food order in France during different eras by comparing it with that of other European countries.Jean-Louis Flandrin concludes by examining the backdrop that is common to each one of the countries studied: although nutrition, which is natural, has remained unchanged over the years, gastronomy, which is cultural, has undergone profound changes as our social mores have altered and our knowledge ' particularly medical knowledge ' has grown.Jean-Louis Flandrin is a historian and former head of research at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

No one is as familiar with the complicated history of Lacanian psychoanalysis as Catherine Clément. She is one of the few to have followed its labyrinthine complexities without becoming trapped by them. No one practises psychoanalysis in such an innovative manner as Tobie Nathan, and no one has pushed the limits of psychoanalysis as far as he has. The present work is a fascinating discussion between a practising analyst who has not ceased to confront his discipline with other disciplines of the mied, and a philosopher with great psychoanalytic experience. Not only do the authors review and question psychoanalysis as a science; they also delve deeper and question our cultural and psychic identity. This book aims to show how cultural heritage ? a ?debt? linking each generation to its ancestors ? shapes both how we represent reality and our emotional universe. The authors? thoughts and conclusions are thoroughly backed up with a variety of specific examples and observations.Tobie Nathan is an ethno-psychologist and teaches clinical and pathological psychology at the University of Paris VIII.Catherine Clément is a writer and philosopher.

Exercise is not enough to ensure good health. You must also respect your body and know what is good or bad for it. So are sports beneficial or dangerous? Can exercise harm the spinal column? Can it be bad for your heart? Does exercise increase or lessen stress? How can you avoid damaging your bones? How can you safeguard your blood pressure? Too much exercise - or poorly executed exercises - can be bad for you. Some knowledge is required and a few precautions must be taken if sports are to have more positive than negative effects. This book shows you how to boost health and morale by respecting your body. It will help you'discover the best way of practising sports. This original reflection on sports and exercise offers an objective examination of the benefits and risks involved. The information and advice included here will enable readers to choose the sport that is best suited to their own health and physical condition.A physician specialising in sports medicine, Stéphane Cascua works at Hôpital de La Pitié-Salpêtrière, in Paris, and for a major professional football team. He is also a university lecturer.

We rarely question the mechanI'ms and processes that enable us to perform such feats as uttering as many as 200 words a minute (more than one word every 400 milliseconds, and to process messages containing identical sound characteristics.How do we prepare what we?re going to say? How do we fied the right word? How do we organise sound sequences to produce messages? How do we decipher the sound sequences we hear? How do we manage to decipher the meaning of sentences heard in difficult situations? Why do we make mistakes and slips of the tongue? What is the path taken by information through the auditory system and the brain? The field of psycholinguistics has progressed greatly in the past few years, and both Juan Segui and Luc Ferrand have contributed to it. They describe the many complex operations that make up the simple ? yet extraordinary ? act of speech.Juan Segui is a research director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the director of the laboratory of experimental psychology at the University of Paris-V. Ludovic Ferrand is a researcher working in the laboratory of experimental psychology at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

It is commonly held that during the early days of a child's development, the father's a role is overshadowed by the mother's, whose interaction with her new baby is invested with a more essential character. Another commonly held idea is that, for the child, the mother represents nature, the body and the emotions, while the father represents culture, language and the outside world. It is also commonly held that the father upholds the mother's decisions and that he represents rules and authority in the eyes of the child. But are all these ideas true? Based on numerous scientific studies and concrete examples, Jean Lecamus gives negative answers each time: the father's role is just as important as the mother's for the child's personal growth and development; the physical and emotional role played by the father in the early days of a child's development can be as important as the mother's; the father should not remain in the mother's shadow since he too has a specific role to play.This book should help fathers to experience parenting more fully, while helping mothers in their relations with their child and their partner. Jean Lecamus is a psychologist and a specialist in questions of child development. He teaches at the University of Toulouse-le-Mirail, France.